Character Point Rewards Versus Speed of Play

The intent of DF Whiterock was a "zero-to-hero" campaign, in the tradition of old D&D, where you start at first level and progress until you become super-powerful heroes (or, more likely, a total party kill).  This contrasts with the Dungeon Fantasy rules, where you start at 250 points, which is already pretty badass.

To achieve the "first-level" feeling, I made the initial group of PCs start at only 150 points, rather than 250.  I originally planned on 125 points, half the Dungeon Fantasy level, but I thought the Dungeon Fantasy disadvantage limit of -50 points was too much and would result in PCs with more disads than players would actually remember to play, so I changed 125 + -50 to 150 + -25.  Adding in 5 more points for quirks and 5 more for "Sense of Duty: Adventuring Companions" not counting against the limit (because I didn't want intra-party violence), PCs started with 185 positive points.  This achieved the goal of making them weaker than usual Dungeon Fantasy starting characters, but I don't know if it quite got the "first level" feeling right.  In particular, these PCs weren't nearly as brittle as first level D&D characters.  (Though, GURPS characters take longer to make than D&D characters, especially if you're not using templates, so maybe that was the right call.)

The other half of zero-to-hero is rapid advancement.  I knew I wanted to give out more points than usual.  I also knew I didn't want to spend a lot of time figuring out how many, or cause inter-player drama by giving some PCs more points than others.  So I decided to go with a flat 5 points per character per session to start, with occasional bonuses for significant achievements.  (I deliberately didn't make this a fixed announced rule though, because I thought I might need to change it later.)  To encourage participation, points only go to PCs whose players are actually running them: if you're not there and your PC is played by another player or the GM, no points for you!

Early in the campaign, I gave a few bonus points for accomplishing significant things, but then I felt that PC advancement was going a bit too fast, so I stopped doing that.  Also, bonuses that only happen in some sessions mean that players who miss those sessions feel bad.  Eventually I cut rewards from 5 per session to 4, then (at 400 character points) 3, then (at 450 character points) 2.  Not really sure exactly what I will do in the future.

We've only had one PC death so far.  New PCs have joined the campaign at a point level higher than the original 150 points (because such low-powered characters would be badly outmatched by the current dungeon level), but lower than the lowest existing PC (because it feels unfair to let a new PC cut in line).

What happens when players figure out they get the same number of points whatever they do, and that death has consequences?  Well, I guess it depends on the players.  For my group of players, they explore very slowly and carefully, take few risks, and try to find every bit of treasure.  Is this fun?  Sure.  Does it makes the game take longer?  Absolutely.

So, what kind of things could I do next time to encourage faster or braver play?

• Give fewer points for participation, more for accomplishments.
• Have more clear time limits.  If you don't do X by Y, you can never do X because Z.
• Make points transferable to a new PC, so PC death matters less.

I'm not completely unhappy with how advancement has gone, so I don't really see the need for extreme changes in this campaign.  If I were to run Castle Whiterock again for a new group, I think I might go with even fewer points to start, and change starting rewards from a flat 5 points/session to something like 2 points/session for participation, with lots more rewards for doing things.  Figuring out all those exact bonuses is more work than just handing out flat points per session though.  Everything is a tradeoff.